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Whether you love the concept of Twitter, or hate the idea of Twitter, if your business is not taking advantage of this opportunity, you are only hurting yourself.Â Yes, Twitter may not be a marketing method right for every type of business, but at the very least you should explore the potential Twitter opportunity.

Twitter is a great resource for smaller or sole proprietorship businesses to get exposure on a world-wide level with a minimal investment (time).Â While you may be timid to jump into Twitter pool with your business, don’t worry, everything will be ok…there are lifeguards nearby to help you out should you get in trouble.

Follow these steps and you will be well on your way to establishing your business brand on Twitter.

Complete your Twitter profile by filling out the various information it asks for.Â It can help give a good overview to your followers of what you and your company is about.

Brand your profile with a custom Twitter background so that you stand out from the crowd.Â Custom backgrounds are a great way to establish your brand among your followers.

If you are the sole proprietor or face of the company, you can add a more personal touch to your Twitter profile with a picture of you.Â However, should you want to use your company logo that is ok as well since it helps establish your brand.

Add your Twitter link to your business cards.Â This can serve as a great offline conversation starter with potential clients and customers.

Find other Twitter users who are interested in your niche or products.Â To do this, simply head on over to the good old twitter search.

Be efficient with your daily Twitter use.Â Although it may be difficult, try to not to spend the entire workday on Twitter.Â It can distract you from more important business matters.Â Try designating an allocated amount of time, or a certain time each day where you login to Twitter.

Share beneficial and relevant information with your followers.Â Whether it is industry related news, or information about a new service your company offers; sharing great content is king.Â Please note, that you don’t need to tweet about what you had for lunch today.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy (or girl).Â Just because it is a “business” related Twitter account does not mean that you can only talk about business related topics.Â If possible, try to mix in a bit of info about you so that your followers can learn a bit more about you.Â Who knows, you may find out you have more in common with your followers than just business.

Do your best to reply to anyone who replies to your tweets or posts an @yourname.Â While this may not always be possible, it can definitely strengthen the relationship between you and your followers.

Thank users who retweet one of your tweets.Â Be sure to retweet others when possible.

Create surveys or ask questions to your followers about your products and services.Â This can be both good and bad, so be ready for honest responses.

Follow the leaders in your industry.Â If there is not a defined Twitter leader for your niche, now is the time to step up and grab it for yourself.

Provide free insight and help on Twitter.Â The vast majority of Twitter users do not appreciate being hounded to buy your product or services.Â However, should you be known to help out others, chances are your goodwill can result in future business.

Track your Twitter referrals to your website.Â Google Analytics is one great free source to analyze and track your website traffic.Â Aside from tracking the traffic from Twitter, Google Analytics can provide you with some very useful info about your site.

Invite your employees to create an account and take part in Twitter.Â This can not only help ease the workload for yourself, it can also help increase your brand and company awareness on Twitter.

Monitor your brand.Â There are a few ways to do this so you can keep on top of what others are saying about your business.Â One of the easiest is to use Twitter Search and type in your business name.Â Then simply grab the RSS link for the results and paste it into your favorite RSS reader.Â You can then be aware of what is being said about your name on Twitter.

While we could continue to add more to the list, these 16 should help get your small business established on Twitter in no time.Â Are there any tips you use that you can recommend?

Thanks for collecting these great starter tips for small businesses on Twitter, all of which I believe are sound. I do think that you could also make a list of tips on how to build a following. Sure you can use Twitter search…but how? There are several methods and tactics for small businesses to find people to follow, but getting the right people to follow back for the right reasons is nowhere as easy as it seems. In fact, I am going to have to strongly disagree with this postulate:

"Twitter is a great resource for smaller or sole proprietorship
businesses to get exposure on a world-wide level with a
minimal investment (time)."

I've been running a small business Twitter account diligently for over a year now, and I would not say that I've achieved world-wide exposure nor was it a minimal time investment to get just to the point where we are now. Even with the few thousand followers we have today, only a fraction of them are listening at any given time anyway.

I think expectations need to be managed better, and that begins with determining your social media marketing strategy, and then seeing what type of Twitter tactics will get you there. Either way, it's a serious investment of time and resources which should not be taken lightly.

Thanks again for the great tips!

Sincerely,
Lyell E. Petersen
@93octane on Twitter

http://intensedebate.com/people/seosecrettravel seosecrettravel

Nice article, but you're wrong at the beginning. You see, Twitter IS the right kind of marketing for EVERY kind of business!

I completely agree with what Ronnie said! #Followfridays are a great way to find people to add, and to give yourself a little boost!

Toni

Great Post! I agree with Ronnie and Steve as well.

I use TwAitter to setup my #FollowFriday tweets throughout the week so I don't leave anyone out. I can also focus on other things on Friday's rather than just setting up my follows http://www.twaitter.com

http://intensedebate.com/people/JohnZajaros JohnZajaros

Great article! I have also found it useful to prune every once in a while, getting rid of people not following back, unless they offer something very special, and also dropping people who have become inactive. This helps keep the Twitter ratio in line and you don't get stopped from following because of too much dead weight. There are several tools for this, all have their purpose. Thanks again for a very useful article.

Point number 8 is soooo important, and not a lot of people do this. I'll be honest, I have followed people on Twitter knowing that they will follow me too. However, it's soo annoying when it's strictly business and there is no human aspect, or it's a botted RSS feed.